Sexuality and gender
Sexuality as a concept involves the way people experience, act, and express themselves as sexual beings. This involves biological, erotic, physical, emotional, social, or spiritual feelings and behaviors. Because it is a broad term, which has varied over time, it lacks a precise definition. The biological and physical aspects of sexuality largely concern the human reproductive functions, including the human sexual response cycle. Someone's sexual orientation can influence that person's sexual interest and attraction for another person. Physical and emotional aspects of sexuality include bonds between individuals that is expressed through profound feelings or physical manifestations of love, trust, and care. Social aspects deal with the effects of human society on one's sexuality, while spirituality concerns an individual's spiritual connection with others. Sexuality also affects and is affected by cultural, political, legal, philosophical, moral, ethical, and religious aspects of life. Gender refers more specifically to the characteristics pertaining to, and differentiating between, masculinity and femininity. Although sexuality has a ton of topics, it does not come up in megaten all that often, with the sexuality often being deliberately downplayed and implied rather than directly involved in the plots. Though it does bring it up a small number of times, as well as indirectly in a thematic or archetypical light. So this page will be limited to things particularly relevant to specific in game examples, rather than giving a broad overview. The alignments and sexuality The alignments tend to differ on many issues, ranging from presentation and identity to moral issues. But there are also things they tend to have in common. For instance, both of them tend to imply a goal of relative equality between the sexes. So seeing there as being heavy imbalances is something not seen as meaningfully the point of any path when performed ideally. However, how they think this manifests may show up in different ways. Since not much information is given, we don't have much to go on. For instance, both groups in their churches and armies have sexual integration, but its not clear that they necessarily think that there will be equal numbers of each sex in any role. Since chaos professes to be based on strength, with physical strength being a key aspect, they may end up with slightly less, though this is not presented as deliberate. Sexuality can also be used to show indirect aspects of the alignments, and tones of them that have to do with things other than sex. For instance, using the medium of bdsm outfits, the angel for law is shown wearing a submissive style outfit, whereas the succubus for chaos is dressed like a dominatrix. This establishes a tone of humility and submission for law, and dominance for chaos. This being not merely a reflection of sexual preferences, but using them as a vehicle to show larger aspects of the sides in general. Not only the sides, but the archetypal thematic aspects represented by the things they depict. Likewise, in p5, the girl presented as using being a dom as an excuse to be abusive also transformed into a chaos demon, expanding that theme of dominance and taking these ideas too far. The association of a more dominant presentation with chaos, and a more submissive one with law extends past female figures. Similar tones show up in male ones. For instance, chaos demons are more likely to show up overtly masculine in appearance, showing off muscles. Whereas law angels, even male ones tend to not highlight this as much (except for the cardinal archangels). The angels often look more effeminate, and even if they come off commanding in appearance are often seen in armor or something that does not as obviously show off muscles. Making the entire army have a slightly more androgynous appearance. Which matches classical depictions of angels. For both male and female characters by extension law comes off leaning a little feminine and chaos a little masculine. One of the potential unfortunate implications of this stems from the fact that neutral actually has more disparity in how the sexes of its characters are presented than law or chaos. For law the more effeminate tone of the males makes the presentation of the sexes more similar to eachother (note: mastema, jonathan, etc), and for chaos a more assertive tone of female characters (lilith, louisa ferre, chiaki). Even side characters like aniel and the demon mothers tend to follow this pattern. neutral on the other hand tends to depict the sexes as more different, with female ones often being given more submissive roles. Like heroine, beth (if counted as neutral via following on any path in endgame), hiroko, yuko, isabeau, and even the godess of tokyo, who is presented in a submissive relation to steven via the creation of burroughs. Whereas male neutral heroes like flynn, gore, masakado, and steven are all depicted as larger than life. So on law and chaos the sexes actually seem to be treated more similarly than on neutral. Which may reveal something about atlus' focus on neutral tying to what it considers a normal status quo type paradigm with the idea of normality given a bit more focus than they might consciously realize. As far as relationship goals or direct sexual ethics, and how the alignments approach them it gets a bit more ambiguous, since these things do not come up often in game. One thing to note is that none of the sides seem to have uber ridiculously strict ethics on it, based on how it is presented. But beyond that there is less to go on. One can imagine that chaos in many instances does seem to want some leniency, or even sometimes active indulgence, at least for the strong. Keeping in mind that mara is a penis, and represents indulgence in a chaotic sense, those themes are obviously meant to be present for their side. However, one odd thing that happens is that in SMTII lucifer forbids crowley to have an orgy in his own house. And no explanation is really given for it. So chaos, despite seeming like it would be highly lenient even has some random instances of not being so. Though its never really explained what the reasoning behind this was, or whether it was a one off event. And of course crowley is chaos also. Endings like SJs chaos also show giant sexual and blood covered statues, indicating indulgence in various ways. Interestingly for the archetypical depictions of chaos is that both positive and negative Buddhist figures (vairochana / mara, etc) are generally associated with chaos. So its depiction of the egoistic impulse isn't just equating it with sexuality, but can involve rejecting it too. Since buddhas like virochana are obviously associated with paranirvana and transcendence of distinct existence, whereas mara represents clinging to it, and the sensual indulgences contained therein. These showing that there are different paths one can take and ways to respond based on the egoistic impulse, even if one is acting in accord with it. Although people might at first glance be inclined to think that law would imply slightly more standards (though obviously not bizarrely high, considering how the series approaches it in general), one other point of note is that in ronaldo's ending in desu II it shows a scene of a male and female figure holding hands in a relationship kind of way only to zoom out and see that this is a long chain of alternating sexes. And parallel appearances show up in other endings like SJs. This may possibly imply that sometimes in law slanted worlds, relationships might be expanded more often due to people no longer having the egoistic impulses that makes it inefficient to do so without causing problems, or which narrow their scope of interaction. (Though ironically, this would even if this were the case likely be much less in ronaldo's world, being a more lite version of the idea than in some others). Note that this doesn't mean advocating leniency in sexual ethics based on their paradigm, which isn't how law would approach things, just that the human consciousness might be so radically changed that the approach is entirely different, and involve more hive-mind like thinking and approaches to relationships in a parralel to how its focus on ethics and interpersonal relationships themselves shift. Perhaps taking inspiration from the implications of brave new world. But again, it wouldn't be anything like that or that common based on how its presented. And in IV it points out that families in the sense normally understood still exist in some form. This also could be hinted at via the parallel of how the games present law and chaos and neutral's scopes in general. With chaos being more egoistic, neutral being person to person in a way where they derive the claim to calling it humanism, and law being big picture thinking. If all its aspects are shifted in this sense, you could potentially see a corresponding shift in approaches to relationships. But that is somewhat speculative. And at any rate probably wouldn't be a universal, due to there being seemingly other examples. But its something that could potentially be a result based on the mentality shift involved with the creation of law worlds. So for the alignments in general there is some ambiguity about where they take it, and first assumptions might not be totally accurate as to the sole big picture. Demons and identity Demons in game do tend to appear with a physical sex as part of their incarnation most of the time. Nonetheless, the games do show that the sex isn't necessarily totally immutable. Something a lot of top demons show is that to them, they can appear in either sex at different times, or some form of androgynous combo. Gabriel goes from male to female in I and II. Mara goes from male to female. Lucifer has appeared as both male and female. Satan is generally referred to as male, but his demon form from II has boobs. Merkabah has boobs but is presented as androgynous. What a lot of this goes to show is that high level demons due to their spiritual nature are not necessarily as bound by human concepts of sex or gender and their associated qualities in the same way a lot of people are. Not that people are in some more immutable way, but that for demons, it may be more open ended, where switching is something common for many more than you'd see analogues of for humans. But nonetheless they often still have a particular sex in any given appearance. And some may appear always as the same sex. Note that its mainly higher level demons in game who change sex or appear this way. Which might mean lower level ones have less leniency for this. In part due to not having multiple forms. This actually has a parallel in a lot of classical mythology. In many old myths, the gods are seen as having characteristics of both sexes, or sometimes taking on characteristics of the opposite sex to show transcendence beyond certain limitations humans have, and ability to manifest more qualities. And for angels, the beings themselves are often described in lore as not meaningfully having sex altogether. Such that the appearance of them if they manifest in a form that has one is merely an appearance. In game, this can be both in a sense even, since some demons have slightly different personalities based on their different forms, and their sexual appearances may be an aspect of this. One of the most obvious examples being lucifer in IV, whose human female appearance is much nicer and more playful than the male demon king appearance. So sexes and gender expression to them can be something they change for different uses. Though this aspect of having different personalities in different forms is likewise to show how alien the way they work is relative to humans, and aspects of transcendence. Note of course that in many religions, the ideas of genders and sexes even for humans are not presented as absolute either. In eastern religions, people when reincarnating can reincarnate as either sex. And in western religions, some of them implied that you might not have a sex proper in the afterlife. With jesus mentioning how people will not be married in the afterlife, but will be like the angels, implicating potentially lack of sexual characteristics. Despite this, that part has been interpreted different ways and some still think that they would have sex. Many of those same religions in the past however did imply that whenever you are in a certain form however you are bound by what sex you are, and associated ethics that comes with it. Since many old societies would have had heavy gender roles and ideas of ethics revolving around it. Though the interesting presentation in game of course is that no group really holds to ideas like that anymore. As far as demons in game being more open ended about sexual appearance however doesn't mean that they are implying humans are inherently bound by sexual characteristics. Since the games often talk about how cognition and observation and the ability to approach them in different ways allows for different paradigms and thus infinite potential. Just that sexes are by nature physical. To spiritual beings who are mental first, their relation to their body when incarnating would be different, in part because having different forms they can take on a whim to them would be similar to human essence reincarnating as a different sex altogether. Since gods and high beings are described as ideals and ideal ends in game, these figures, even if evil ones can also reflect a more advanced state one can reach of being free from the boundaries placed on one by gender roles by their society. Something that themes of also come up with human characters like naoto in p4. Though this doesn't generally mean that they think there wouldn't be specific appearances and associations based for the sexes in general. Note one more thing to point out about demons is that sexuality itself for demons might be a bit different. Since many demons may represent sexuality without it necessarily always being sexual for them themselves. Such as fertility godesses for whom it is often used to represent the earth being bountiful. Another thing is that many demons may be naked or near naked without it necessarily being presented as overtly meant to be immediately sexual in the senses humans see. This is often shown in classical art to emphasize that as spirits they may be beyond human concepts of sexuality, and the absence of clothes sometimes representing ethereality. For instance, the regular low level angel in many games has an obvious human body, and is noticeably bottomless. But being in an angel society its not clear that that would be something immediately recognized as sexual by angels who due to their nature may see nudity different among themselves. At least not in the same sense as to humans. Or if so, in an abstract way not seen as having the same connotations as such an appearance would be for humans. This also has an analogue in religious artwork that often depicted angels wearing little or sometimes no clothing, to represent being more aerial, and even representing lack of a body in general. This aside, demons are obviously shown to be capable of sexuality as well, and of having children, even with humans. Such as hallelujah being half demon. One more point to note is that since demons and humans in thier incarnatins are meant to be continuous, where although its not as common, demons can reincarnate as a human or a human as a demon, that some of these attributes of the relation between essence and sex have to be seen as related to either similarly. Your sex being something that as a human you may have physically attached to you, but that only is unchangeable inasmuch as your physical body maintains it, whereas demons can change it more since they are more capable of changing their forms. Interestingly, one way even being through fusion. Some demons in game are noted for treating fusion almost like a form of sexuality, on top of the fact that the result may be a different sex than what went into it. Also, note that some mother godesses are implied to give birth to humans themselves. General instances in persona Persona due to being about day to day life, deals with a few sexuality issues a little more than mainline smt does, which deals with them more in an abstract archetypical way. One issue being certain issues that revolve around sexual harassment and molestation. The beginning of p5 with kamoshida details the reality that molestation and sexual harassment is something authority figures can have disproportionate ability to inflict on you. Not only that, it expands this line of thought detailing people's tendency to blame the victim, or stigmatize them. It details that there's a stigma for sexual harrasment that shows up that can cause further problems for victims on top of the harrasment itself. And that this is a problem with how things often go in society that needs to be dealt with. This is likely a reasoning behind anne's persona having a femdom type appearance, showing an inversion of being the victim in a sexual light to being the one with power rather than originally feeling powerless to do anything about the abose from kamoshida. Homosexuality and its intersection with gender roles are dealt with a bit in the games, though not heavily. The games obviously don't imply that it is inherently wrong, although most of them other than a few don't allow homosexual relationship options. In p4, kanji worries that he might be homosexual due to not conforming properly to the male concept of gender roles. Showing the problem with rigid insistence on them as a normative force. The conclusion of his arc interestingly ends, not with him realizing he is or is not homosexual or bisexual, but that that never mattered as something to be worried about, and that it is separate from him not conforming to every aspect of masculinity. Which in and of itself isn't something to worry about either. Likely, he is meant to be somewhat bisexual based on how the issues with naoto played out. The part with naoto despite having her seem to want a sex change is ironically not really meant to be about that so much as the problems that can arise from sexism and presumptions of the need for strong gender conformance. Due to being female, she realized she was not as respected as a male in her position would be, as well as her age, and so ended up wishing she was male and older. Before finally realizing that it was these standards forced onto her making her want that, and that these things were actually semi secondary to realizing that what she really wanted was the respect that sexism wasn't affording her. This is an exploration into the detrimental effects that various presumed normative aspects of gender roles can have, and the need to deal with the problems they imply. Though some might think that the example they chose to represent her with was poor, implying that her desire for a sex change being not about really wanting one downplays people who want one for its own sake. In the end, she does continue to use the male uniform, implying that some of it was likely also a desire to not have to conform to female appearances. Though in a comic about her as an adult she does grow her hair out, implying that over time she started worrying about that less. Morgana from persona 5 seems to have a streak of femininity and cross-dressing aspects. Though morgana identifies as a boy, his name is female, and he has a female voice (actress), and whenever alternate costumes are used he often dresses in a female costume. Implying some malleability to his gender presentation. Nothing is made of this in game (in part since the alternate costumes are non canon and so never commented on when being worn), but the casualness of the entire thing is in and of itself a type of presentation. In p5 one of the books you can read is a pick up artist book. When you read it morgana comments on it calling it a sleazy book, and saying that the writer comes off like a smug asshole. But notes that despite this it did contain some decent tips on being charming, and raised the relevant social stat. This is making an admission that sometimes bad people do indeed know how to have charisma and get rewarded for it. But that the fact of it working doesn't really de facto justify it. Nor is the bad parts really necessary to be able to be more charismatic. Other thematic uses Sexuality can also be used to represent other types of things. For instance, the association of sky father and earth mother is one that exists in many places in history. This being because the earth being seeded by the sky and then bringing forth is seen as paralleling sexuality. This binary is represented in game with yhvh and mem aleph, with mem aleph literally being meant to be a kind of general mother earth type figure. Although ironically, the figures are not presented as having any kind of direct relation with eachother, despite fulfilling these halves of this binary.yhvh and mem aleph have futher associations from sexuality, such as associating the male with the stern and teaching father figure and the female with the nurturing figure who helps one become themself. Though in practice chaos is not very nurturing in game. And one should note that yhvh and even mem aleph tend to have much looser associations with the sides than they at first appear. Another thing that shows up in strange journey is the fact that law is depicted as representing archetypical masculine aspects and chaos feminine ones. On its surface this might seem like this is the wrong way around, since law is normally considered more passive, and chaos more aggressive. But what it is actually representing is the historical and psychological archetypical association of the masculine with the idea of reason, something that law is associated with in-game, and the feminine with the creative emotional side. While obviously those associations would be highly contentious to associate with sexual characteristics in the modern understanding of psychology, it was a historical association, and aspects of it still exist in association. Another aspect shows up in the appearance of satan as he appears in SMTII. His head is based on the art of H R Giger, whose art became the basis of the alien head in alien. This art was originally made to represent that the human semblance of order placed over sexuality was a construct, and that sexuality itself, and the things it was connected to in nature was merely a cold mechanical inhuman and amoral drive to survive. For its appearance on satan, this could imply that this aspect of the animalistic essence underlying humanity is still present, and that only by living via a coherently established order can one surpass and override this. And that to see satan, angel of judgement implies a failure to do so. One other thematic use of sexuality is in nocturne, it is associated with the creation of the world. The magatushi needed to collect to create a new world looks like red glowing sperm cells. And kagutsuchi where you need to bring it is shaped like an egg. The association here of it as an egg (world egg, specifically) and of associating conception with the birth and creation of a new world being obvious. They even use the word conception in game to refer to the overall process, making a more obvious association. Gaze Gaze is a concept present in both existentialist and phenomonological literature that refers not to something one has or uses, but a particular kind of relation one ends up in. the term male gaze was coined to refer to media made from a male point of view in which the "camera" so to speak represents a male perspective. Female gaze in contrast refers to the opposite. These terms generally also implying that it is due to the authors themselves being these sexes. Much of the use of these concepts relates to how the male gaze is treated as standard in much media. For instance, female characters in things tend to be sexualized in ways that imply that the viewers will find them appealing in ways that male characters tend to be less so. Another non sexual concept is the imperial gaze, that in which weaker cultures are depicted through the lens of more powerful ones that have power over them. Megaten relates to this in various ways interestingly. In some ways it has it, but in some ways it tends to less than others. For instance, most of the games, despite the main character existing as a blank self insert do limit it to male ones. However, despite there being some sexuality, compared to a lot of series-es, the amount of fanservice tends to be rather lower. Although it is definitely highly present in certain games like iva. While there is some sexuality in female demons, this is often not highlighted in an explicit way. Though there definitely still is some, as can be seen in the persona games with the comparison of the male and female outfits. Some of the later games even have an element of fanservice from the opposite direction, such as record breaker and iva. In addition, many female characters in megaten games are shown to be autonomous and self interested. So you have a mixed bag in terms of depiction. One example of the female gaze in megaten though shows up in digital devil saga, due to the presence of a female writer (Though note that said writer left before the story was fully finished, and so is put out their own idea in seperate works called quantum devil saga). When looking at the characters in digital devil saga, its notable that the male characters are actually depicted more sexualized, and the female ones less so. With characters like heat depicted in ways that are written to come off attractive through a female lens. And with sera and argilla having barely any overtly sexual elements at all. Certain stories like fullmetal alchemist and blue exorcist tend to be noticeable in this front for having female designers in that how the characters are depicted and act reflects not only female sexuality, but certain trends that are more common in female writing. For instance, some note that stories written from the female perspective tend to more often have main characters argue and be at odds with eachother, due to the more common female focus on communication over just action.